During most of the 20th Century, furniture design had been pacing towards Modernism. Now, firmly rooted in an era of Contemporary furniture design, speculation is beginning to be made on where the future of furniture lies, and what the next innovations might bring to the table, or the chair.
Various movements have been seen to be growing in popularity since the beginning of the 21st Century. As furniture trends move towards Post-Modernism, huge interest have been seen in ecodesign and, increasingly, in natural edge design. Ecodesign takes into account the environmental impact of a piece of furniture throughout the whole lifetime of the product, from manufacture, through use, and including disposal. Often making use of recycled or recyclable material, the ecodesign movement’s success lies not only in the genuine environmental value of the trend, but also in the ever-growing public awareness of environmental issues to the extent that tackling green issues has become a trend.
Another cultural trend, urbanisation, has affected furniture design in an interesting way. As the population of cities continue to grow, the living space available shrinks. Smaller living accommodation is not only necessary to cater for the increasing city populations, but they are cheaper, easier to maintain, and to follow the ecodesign movement, are more environmentally friendly.
This long-term trend towards reduced living space has encouraged a plethora of innovative designers, inventors, mechanics, and even scientists. The following video is a look inside the showroom of the futuristic Resource Furniture. With showrooms around the globe, the company, complete with tagline – “Space. Reinvented.” - allows a glimpse into what could well be the industry standard furniture of the future city dwelling.
Another innovative individual trying to do more with less is Shin Yasmashita. The Japanese industrial design student is the creator of Landpeel, which is essentially a mat that can be moved and manipulated to create makeshift furniture wherever needed.
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As you can see from the pictures, Landpeel offers an unprecedented level of manoeuvrability and customisation. It is one of the only solutions that would allow one to spend the morning doing yoga, the afternoon working at a desk, and the evening eating a meal and spending casual time with friends, all without having to remove and replace furniture between activities.
The “Otto-Bench” from Life Fitness is another example of how product manufacturers are ensuring their products are multiuse, to allow customers to have one item taking up space in their home, instead of two or three.
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This can be used in a living space as a coffee table or as extra seating in the form of an ottoman. Open it up, however and it allows the owner use of a fully functional bench press, with adjustable bench, and magnetic free weight storage.
Another furniture innovation, that is just really cool, makes use of stainless-steel sheeting that can be inflated into furniture. The resulting piece of furniture is remarkably strong, very lightweight, and totally one-of-a-kind as no two will be exactly alike.
Image Source: interestment.com
